Keeping track of the comings and goings of 528 teachers as well as double that number in support staffers such as maintenance personnel, administrative, management and transportation workers, is the job for Gord Husband and his department in the South East Cornerstone Public School Division.
Husband, the superintendent of human resources for Cornerstone, provided the board of trustees with his annual progress report on Nov. 21 during the early part of the board's monthly open business session in Weyburn.
In the power point report, Husband noted the school division with about 8,200 students, fills 527.8 full time teaching positions. These positions are augmented with a further 43.25 full time positions being filled by people who are skilled in early education intervention and another 37 who provide other learning supports.
Cornerstone employs just over 128 educational assistants and fields a bus driving and vehicle maintenance crew of 125 while another 14 people work within the information systems in the division that has 39 facilities including one cyber school.
Husband said that union contracts with CUPE and SEIU will be expiring in August of next year, and provincial negotiations with teachers across the province, are ongoing.
The human resources leader said the hunt for and recruitment of teachers to fill the more rural positions remains a challenge as do those who teach practical and applied arts.
He said a response to a pending provincial collective agreement will expose new challenges, too, once it is completed.
Technical upgrades will help his department keep better track of employees who are returning to work, including those on medical leave. Monitoring the progress of employees not currently in the work stream will improve with new tracking techniques and software.
"We are getting to know when they're ready to return to work, getting to know how they are working through medical leaves, so we'll know whether they are close to returning to work or not," Husband said.
Marc Casavant, the director of education, added that with that tool in place, "then can we accommodate them and help them get back into the workforce, once they're ready to return?"
That's the next question that can be addressed in a timely manner, he suggested.
Husband told the trustees that Cornerstone's personnel sector is getting closer to achieving a paperless system for keeping personnel files including sick leave management and recording employee movement. He said candidates for employment in Cornerstone do so now online in all employment categories.
"We had 113 hirings for the fall startup last year, so you can see how important and effective it can be," Husband said, confirming that educational assistants and all support staff employee hiring begins with online applications now joining the other employment categories that have been carried out through online processes earlier.
